RL first distinguished himself outside of Next with his duet with
Deborah Cox on the song "We Can't Be Friends" as well as other feature projects. RL followed up that effort with "The Best Man I Can Be", the super-group track from
The Best Man movie soundtrack which also featured
Ginuwine,
Tyrese and
Case. By the time RL's soulful "Good Love" (from
The Brothers movie soundtrack) and his hook to
2Pac's
Until the end of Time were released, he had created an artistic persona distinct and separate from
Next.
RL: Ements is RL's debut solo project and was released on
J Records. It spawned the singles "Got Me a Model" (featuring
Erick Sermon) and "Good Man". ==Personal life==